We all enjoy the benefits of running and the enhanced quality of life it brings, but wouldn’t it be great to get paid for it? No, I’m not talking about becoming a professional runner and winning races and making money, I’m talking about being paid to just be a runner. Sound farfetched? This idea may not be as crazy as it sounds, because there are some great incentives for governments to fiscally reward those who are active.

Take a look at the following statistics:

A 2000 study by the Centers for Disease Control estimated that direct health care costs could be reduced in the U.S. by as much as $76.6 billion dollars per year by increasing the activity level of 87 million sedentary Americans.

The same study estimated that direct health care costs for an active person was around $310 less per person per year versus a sedentary person.

The non-direct health care costs such as time lost at work, disability and other factors were also significantly less for active people.

An earlier Canadian study (1993) supports the 2000 study, and states that the Canadian health system would save approximately $5.7 billion dollars in health care costs per year if the 63 percent of Canadians who were considered sedentary became active.

Running is a healthy lifestyle choice for most of us. As a consequence this demographic is part of the solution to reducing health care costs and lost productivity. So why shouldn’t there be incentives to continue and further encourage this type of behavior?

In Canada, the federal government is starting to give this idea serious consideration. In 2007, parents of children enrolled in approved sports programs can apply for up to a $500 tax credit. There has also been talk of allowing memberships at gyms and other fitness facilities to be tax deductible.

So why shouldn’t we as runners’ get some reimbursement for our efforts? I know I’d appreciate a few dollars every year towards running shoes and running gear.

Here in Maine, they are thinking of removing the tax exemption for health clubs. This means that not only would we have to pay our membership fees, but we’d have to pay sales tax on those membership fees at all.

Hi Denis and Blaine!
The whole concept of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is completely applicable to countries that wish to have a healthier and more productive population and economy. These go hand in hand. There are numerous studies (which I didn’t mention in my article) that support government endorsement and reimbursement for active citizens. I think people need to push their local governments to look at this concept as an investment in their people, and in society in general.

Hey Joe. I think this is where we will see the difference between Canada and the USA. In Canada, health care is socialized, so the government is already part of the problem or solution depending on one’s opinion. In the USA you folks have a real hot potato issue on whether government should or shouldn’t be part of the equation, and this is where we likely will see some fireworks in this discussion.

I like the idea of rewarding good behavior better than punishing bad behavior (e.g., so-called sin taxes). These days I think there’s too much application of the stick, and not enough carrot-dangling. Neither works well without the other.

I read somewhere else that some senator is trying to pass a bill to make payments to health clubs part of a pre-tax program. I don’t think we need that – we just need to add ‘health club membership’ to the existing pre-tax ‘flexible spending’ program we have. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, if you company supports it you can allocate $X/year to be deducted from your pay before taxes are collected but you have to “use it or lose it” and it can only be used for specific things like medical costs and childcare. It’s a very good (and already established) program and I fully endorse adding ‘health club memberships’ to the list. I do not endore generating yet another program to handle this. All programs have associated costs and overhead.

The state of Maine is nuts to tax health club memberships. I get the reasons for doing it but it seems like raising the tourism tax would be a better solution.

I think I’ll talk to the boss tomorrow and show him the numbers. He bears part of the cost for my health insurance so if I show him a way he can save some money, he might go for some kind of reimbursement program.

The numbers don’t lie! It appears that one way to approach this is to allow the corporate sector to become involved in their own best interests. This is probably a more likely scenario in the United States since health care is privatized. In Canada I do know of some larger companies that reimburse employees for health club memberships. In fact the city of Edmonton has a program for civic employees getting discounts at city run sports centers. So this is not as far out idea as one would think!